No mistake!

There was an interesting reference in Bhurijana’s biography on Srila Prabhupada. There is a morning walk on the beach and suddenly Prabhupada is pointing to a crab on the beach and he says, “Look, a scorpion!”

All the devotees saw that it was a crab… and everyone was like: Ohhhh! It was sort of like, the penny dropped… he made a mistake! And if he can make mistakes, then how many levels deep can these mistakes go…. and how do we know that his teachings are free from mistakes?

So there are many conversations recorded of Srila Prabhupada with various persons and they have been transcribed in 37 volumes. Those who are fired-up can read them all and should read them all! I did read them all, several times. In there is a conversation with Jayadvaita Swami, then brahmacari, who is asking the bold questions to Prabhupada like: The scriptures say that the pure devotee’s sayings are free from any mistake but sometimes it appears that the pure devotee is making a mistake?

Prabhupada said, “No, there are no mistakes.”

But sometimes it appears like he mistakes one thing for another. For example, he mistakes one person for another person.

Prabhupada said, “Oh, that is material! That is not important. But on the spiritual platform, on the matter of siddhanta, no mistake!”